A Question for Readers: How Do You Define Orthodoxy?

As the ELCA deals with the aftermath of CWA09, and Rome announces its opening its doors to disaffected Anglicans, the question that continues to weigh so heavily on my mind is that of orthodoxy. What exactly does it mean to be theologically orthodox? This question will be answered different nuances depending upon ecclesial community, but is it possible that Lutherans, Anglicans and Romans could at least come up with some basic guidelines? Methodists and Baptists and everyone are welcome to play as well, though I think we will see more divergence from those traditions.

What if I believe that the Bible is the infallible, inspired Word of God, but reject the creeds, can I  be considered orthodox?

What if I believe in the creeds exactly as they were written, seeing them as the great distillation of the tradition, but think there may be wiggle room on topics like human sexuality, can I be considered orthodox?

What if I believe that God used evolution to bring our world into being, can I be considered orthodox?

If, as a Lutheran, I accept the Augsburg Confession and the Catechisms, but think the rest of the Book of Concord is absolute drek, can I be considered an orthodox Lutheran? (this one is tricky historically, huh?)

What if I am divorced and remarried and still serving a parish? Could I be seen as an orthodox pastor when Jesus says I may be guilty of adultery? Does this mean my children are bastards and my wife a whore? Is that how orthodoxy would see my family?

I can go on with examples…but you catch my drift…what REALLY makes one orthodox in belief and teaching? Where do we draw our lines and why?

An Article About St. Luke’s

An article from our county newspaper tells of St. Luke’s efforts to assist Zalika Mason and family. The family belongs to the parish here, and Zalika is recovering from a bone marrow transplant that we pray will eradicate her sickle cell.

Give it a read. If you would like to help us help this family, drop me a line!

Bittersweet October

October is probably my favorite fall month. The temperature in Georgia begins to dip just enough to bring relief from the hot and sticky summer. The leaves in the mountains change, painting the skyline with vibrant reds, yellows and all shades of brown. I start spending a lot more time outdoors, and Southeastern Conference football has some of its biggest match ups. The vibrancy of Spring and Summer die slowly, and the earth sleeps, waiting to be called to new life. It is a good month, a mystical month.

October also the anniversary of the adoption of my son. Adoption day was the culmination of several months of work and several thousand dollars. It was the fulfillment of the day earlier in that year when my son whipped his head around from the kitchen table and asked, “Hey dad, when are you adopting me?” I’ll never forget the day we went to court for our hearing. We entered the judge’s chambers after he had been perusing our paperwork. I had been prepped by our lawyer to answer all sorts of questions, and was a bit on the nervous side. When we got back there, the judge remarked that Asheton looked awfully happy, and asked if he was sure that he wanted me to be his dad forever. Asheton smiled and said yes and the rest is just history. We went bowling, played with air soft guns, and went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was one of the four or five most memorable days in my life (meeting Ezel, marrying her, the adoption, and our two other children being born).

Every year Asheton and I attempt to do something to celebrate. That has ranged from a failed fishing trip last year (a cold north wind battered the little boat on the lake), to eating sushi until we couldn’t stand up, to dropping $100 on video games at Dave and Buster’s. It’s always fun to get away and do bonding activities.

Unfortunately, two years ago we were off at our father son day when I received a phone call from my brother Charlie that my youngest brother Matt had taken a serious turn for the worse in his health, and that I needed to plan to come as soon as I could. We went home so that I could make arrangements, and decided to leave after weekend on Sunday or Monday (the phone call was on a Thursday). I was in the middle of accepting a new call, and had to close on our house that Friday and preach Sunday. In retrospect, I wish I had just dropped everything and gone that day. I got a call the next morning that Matt had passed. All I really remember was not being able to breathe or speak. We had known for years that this day was coming, but the finality of that phone call struck a blow more painful than I know how to articulate.

I carried on with business. After taking the phone call I drove two hours to sign the loan on our house, and went home to continue packing and getting ready for our move. I got to Mississippi early the next week, and insisted on preaching. I wanted to make sure grace was at the center of it all.

It is hard to believe that it has been two years. I still miss my brother every single day, and not a day passes when I don’t think about him. I still want to call when Tony Stewart wins a race. I still have a hard time believing that my two youngest children will never really know who their Uncle Matt was except through pictures and stories. He was a good man and would have added much to their lives.

My brother’s memory is kept alive in many ways, not the least of which is through my youngest son, also named Matt for his uncle. We hadn’t long known that Ezel was pregnant, and had our first ultrasound just before heading to Mississippi. It is always tough to mourn loss and celebrate the mystery of a life that is growing. But these are the stories that make us who we are, from which we derive our meaning and our identity. Life, unfortunately, is never neat or easy, never simple or untainted. Our world is fallen and makes little sense at times. It is an odd mixture of loss, death, gain and new life. It seems that there is little to cling to other than our loved one, our good memories, our hope for the future, and our faith that Jesus Christ has conquered death, hell and the grave.

I guess for those reasons October will always be bittersweet.

Local LutheranCORE Meeting and a Reflection on Heresy

Local LutheranCORE Meeting

The first meeting of the local chapter of LutheranCORE will be meeting at a church in my conference on All Saints Day (an odd choice, to be sure). I’ve decided to attend and have invited the council to attend with me. Why? To get information. To listen. To really hear what they have to say. The pastor spearheading this effort locally is a pastor I greatly respect. He is a good an faithful pastor, not given to acrimony and nastiness that has dominated debate and dissent on both sides.  As I suspect that the coming years will see a realignment of North American Lutheranism, being in the know is a good thing, and this particular forum seems like a good one to gather information. i also think it is important that the lay leadership has a chance to hear what the CORE folks have to say.

On the Word “Heresy”

In his address to the LutherCORE Convocation in Fishers, Indiana, Bishop Paull Spring made the following comment:

“For us the ELCA church wide expression has fallen into heresy, as a result of the decisions that were made in Minneapolis.”

Is the ELCA in a state of heresy, as many traditionalists are claiming? To claim a whole church to be heretical is difficult, and I am not sure you can do it. There are just too many variables in place to speak to the what is in the hearts of four and a half million folks. Now, do I believe that the ELCA is in a state of heresy? I can’t say for sure, but it is abundantly clear to me that the ELCA has tolerated heresy since its inception. Heresy has been present – at times even celebrated – in the ELCA. This is nothing new. Sure, traditionalists rolled their eyes and mumbled a bit, but in general just kept plowing along.

Does anyone remember the Re-Imagining Conference, which oddly enough also took place in the Twin Cities? Ever perused the website of HerChurch?  What about a certain seminary professor who proudly admitted to “baptizing” the family dog? Or the candidacy retreat where a pagan litany was used during the course of worship? What about prayers regularly published in Sundays and Seasons that are little more than self-congratulation for holding the “approved” political views? I could keep going if you like, but I think you get the picture.

My point is that no one was screaming that we were lapsing into heresy for all of these anti-Biblical, anti-Confessional activities and practices. Spring himself says in his speech that we lapsed into heresy “as a result of the decisions that were made in Minnesota.” I want to believe CORE when they say that this is not about sex, but is about biblical interpretation. You’ll forgive me if I am skeptical. To assert that CWA 09 is the origin of our heresy is either short sighted or the good Bishop meant something else (and I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt). There have been numerous chances to stand against the erosion of biblical truth, but nothing has garnered more anger than homosexuality. Why is THIS the heresy that is pushing everyone over the edge?

I assert that the ELCA has been in impaired communion since day one. There are churches in the ELCA that I have attended that do not fit the standards of CA VII and are thus not churches in the proper sense. Am I being harsh? Yes, but honest. There are some ELCA churches I wouldn’t darken the door of. Yet we’ve managed to hold it together this long. So why not now? What is it about this moment, about this topic, that has people ready to leave the church when all sorts of craziness that went on for years barely raised an eyebrow?

Bravo, Concordia Publishing House!

As an ordination gift I received a partial set of Luther’s Works (American Edition). I’ve long wanted the remainder of the texts, which I cannot currently afford. I also saw the the 55 volumes of Luther did not contain near what the Weimar Edition contained, which saddens me because I have fairly weak command of the languages required to read WA. So I was thrilled when I found out that Concordia Publishing House was publishing an additional 20 volumes and that they are available for a subscription rate. I signed up just last week, and already received the first completed volume. It is volume 69, and covers sermons and table talks on St. John not previously published. A handsome book, a readable book, and more Luther! What else could you ask for?

Anyway, thanks Concordia! A bang up job!

BTW, does anyone know why you can’t get sets of Luther’s Works from Augsburg Fortress? My wife asked me that question the other day and I had to confess my ignorance. Was this just a matter of publishing rights, or do we just care about Luther a little less in the ELCA?

Edited to say: I stand corrected. Thanks, Chris. LW-AE are in fact available from Augsburg Fortress. I was basing the above question on an old search. Mea culpa.

Bound Conscience Fail: Circumstantial Evidence

I usually leave facebook and twitter up while I am sitting at my desk. I have noticed what I consider to be both unfortunate behavior and circumstantial evidence of the failure of the newly-minted “bound conscience” doctrine ELCA folks have been invoking as if it is were written in the Augsburg Confession. When reference is made to traditionalists getting together and talking at things like CORE Convocation, or churches like Church of Joy in Arizona leaving, I have noticed a disturbing number of people making snarky comments like, “good riddance” or “go ahead and leave, we don’t want your hate.” I am not going to link to any of them for fear that people will think I am somehow picking a fight or calling them out, but this is the kind of talk that will make traditionalist feel like they truly no longer have a place in the ELCA. Am I the only one noticing this?

BTW, “traditionalists” you aren’t off the hook here. Quit throwing around words like “apostate” as if everyone who disagrees with you worships some four headed snake goddess.

On Banned Book Week

I worked my way through college and seminary holding many jobs, but the one consistent job I held was working in the library system of the institutions I attended. I loved library work with a passion, and even seriously considered becoming a theological librarian rather than a pastor. I was even offered a job at one the largest theological libraries in America with promised tuition assistance. I say all this to say that I love and support libraries.

Every year the American Library Association has a week dedicated to Banned Books, which I happen to think is a very cool idea. Rod Dreher and his culture warrior partners apparently think it is silly. He says on his Crunchy Con site:

Here we are again at Banned Books Week, another opportunity for a certain sort of person to scream, “Help, help, I’m being oppressed!”, when in fact that’s nonsense.

He goes on to quote “his pal” Mitch Muncie,

In the common-law tradition, censorship refers specifically to the government’s prior restraint on publication. None of the sponsors claim this has happened; the acts they have in mind are perpetrated by private citizens. Yet the cases on the map almost all involve ordinary people lodging complaints with school and library authorities. Before Banned Books Week began in 1982, such behavior was known as petitioning the government for a redress of grievances.

Well, its not really quite that simple, is it? Banned Book Week isn’t about attacking ordinary people who lodge complaints with government agencies. It is about raising awareness that there are people in this world who think they know better than you what you or your child should be reading, and they pressure government organizations to bow to their ideas by removing said “offensive” materials from libraries.You have the right not to read something in your library; you do not have the right to deny me access to something the library would otherwise carry.

Some kids only get exposed to  literature through their formal education or through their interaction with libraries. While parents seeking to ban books may not be censorship in the strictest sense, it does function as a de facto form of censorship by denying access to certain literary works to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be exposed to such works. Not everyone can just jump on Amazon and order a book their local library doesn’t carry, even if Muncie thinks that is the solution to this problem.  I live in Georgia, where if the fundys had their way, kids would be denied access to all sorts of literary works, ranging from the innocent and harmless (think Harry Potter), to those works that convey serious social messages (think Ellison’s The Invisible Man).

Is there some literary “drek” that gets defended as well? Sure. Not all literature is good literature. But how does one judge this? How do you measure the worth of art or poetry? It would seem that only time can serve as a judge. But do we want to ban literature if isn’t deemed “artful” or “artisitic” by some agency? Hardly.

The ALA has a nice resource site for Banned Book Week. Check it out. And read a book this week kids!

What Happened?

Do you ever have one of those moments when you stop in your own tracks and ask the question, “What happened to me?”or “who is this person I’ve become?”

An Open Letter to Lutheran CORE and all those Redirecting Benevolence Funds

Dear Friends in Christ -

This is a difficult time for us to be the church together. Whether we like it or not, the ELCA changed on August 21 when changes in ministry policies were approved by our Churchwide Assembly. Some see this change as the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, a sign that God is still speaking in favor of justice. Others see this as the ELCA officially endorsing a sinful, disordered lifestyle and a departure from universal witness of the Church Catholic through the centuries. I do not write to you today to speak either in favor of or against the changes. I write to you today to tell you about my parish, St. Luke Lutheran Church in McDonough, Georgia.

St. Luke is a redevelopment church in one of the fastest growing areas in the region. The church is the result of two churches merging to form a new mission congregation. Sadly, church mergers are often difficult and rarely prove to be successful. Like many other mergers, St. Luke found itself embroiled in conflict. The once promising mission lost more than half of its membership and its founding pastor.  A little over two years ago I was asked by our mission director to come visit the mission, which meets in a storefront location in a multicultural neighborhood. We are nestled between an Asian nail salon and a Caribbean bakery (the bakery supplies us with the most wonderful communion bread each week). I fell in love with this little wounded church and its people, and moved my family from a place where we were very content to this new call. It is a rich place to be in mission and ministry together.

In the last two years St. Luke has made great strides and shown signs of stabilization. We average a little over 60 in worship each week. We are engaged in our community, with ministries that focus primarily outside of ourselves. Our primary ministries revolve around food during these tough economic times. Not only do we distribute meals around the holidays, but we feed the residence at a shelter once a month, we maintain a “Food Angels” ministry that identifies people in the community who lack necessary items such as food, baby formula, and diapers. We also maintain a small emergency food pantry in our storefront so that we can feed those who may wander in, which is a regular occurrence. All of the items we distribute are donated by our members and friends. We know can’t do everything and we can’t help everyone, but what we can do is make sure no leaves our church hungry.

While we are committed to this sort of ministry, our real joy is what occurs here on Sunday mornings. A diverse body gathers. Some are wealthy, some are barely subsisting on state assistance. We are the descendants of Europeans, Asians, Africans and Middle Easterners. We are young and old. When we gather, we are one. Our voices join together in singing praise to God the Holy Trinity as we gather around Word and Sacrament. All in all, we are a typical small church. We love one another, we love our neighbors, and we love God.

In order for us to find the stability so desperately needed, the Southeastern Synod has provided us with over $100,000 in funding over the course of three years. Because of this funding, St. Luke was able to call me to be their full time pastor. This funding also allows us to be present in the community in a way that allows us to share the Gospel with a broken and hurting world. All of the money St. Luke has received find sits origins in benevolence money sent from local churches to the synod. New mission starts and mission redevelopments like ours are dependent upon the generosity of local congregations and local Lutherans. Most of us are teetering on a financial edge that established churches cannot even imagine.

I know you are angry and hurt at the outcome of the Churchwide Assembly. I know you need to find a way to make sure your collective voice is heard. Redirecting your benevolence money away from your Synod and the ELCA seems like a good way to demonstrate how hurt and angry you are. I would ask you to reconsider. It is not the “people in Chicago” who will ultimately suffer from your withdrawal of funds. It is small  mission churches like St. Luke and the people we serve that will suffer. If we lose our funding – even a portion of it – we may well not be able to continue in ministry in the same way. This deeply saddens me, not as a pastor who would have to seek another call to support his family of five, but as pastor who sees the look on the faces of the hungry as we fill grocery bags with food and diapers, providing a glimmer of hope and sign of love in this broken world.

I pray that God will bless you as you gather for the Lutheran CORE meeting in September. I also implore you, in the name of Christ, to find another way to protest than withdrawal of funds from our Synods and the ELCA. Nothing less than the spread of the Gospel itself is at stake.

Your Servant in Christ,

Pastor Robb Harrell

Spirituality in the Real World

I am a little more than half way through with my D.Min. in Christian Spirituality. It is an interesting process and program and when push comes to shove, I am glad I making some use of my continuing education. Due to the Church’s requirement that I take continuing education, and the parish’s contribution to such, I can actually foresee the possibility of another degree program in the future, especially given the alternative means of delivering instruction. Maybe a MA/MS in psychology or philosophy or some other such thing. But I digress…doing a program focused on spirituality has allowed me to read some wonderful books, to explore my own sense of spirituality, and to reassess both how I lead a spiritual community and what it means to practice spirituality myself. All of this has been good for me in the short term, and I am sure it will prove to be so for the long term. At the center, I still think of my spirituality as catholic and monastic, though I am neither a Roman Catholic nor am I a monastic. Yet both have deeply influenced me. The writings of Abbas and Ammas east and west, the historic liturgy and the sacraments, St. Benedict and Thomas Merton and St. John of Kronstadt…not to mention Luther, Gerhard, Arndt, Piepkorn, Braaten, Jenson, Yeago, and Root. These are the people who formed me and continue to form me.

I haven’t written about the results of the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly. That is a very intentional decision. It is not that I have nothing to say on the matter, it is that my thoughts are very scattered at the moment. It is also because I do not wish to become part of the prevailing “debate” in the Church about what is going on. I already see the notion of “respecting bound conscience” breaking down right and left. Outside of the debate floor, the tone of much of the discussion is virulent and hateful. Both sides seek to eviscerate their opponents, and I have no interest in participating. In fact, I have spent progressively less time even reading the debates, making a conscious decision to turn to prayer during this time of upheaval.

I’ve written in plenty of places about the beauty of the Divine Office, and don’t want to rehash that. In fact, my own practice of the Office has changed over the years. I once saw the Office through the eyes of Law: no slacking, be attentive, something is wrong with you if you miss an hour or a day, etc. Now I am very happy that I am simply praying through what the modern Roman Office calls the Office of Readings. I use Benedictine Daily Prayer as my primary breviary, and the editor prefers to call this by the traditional name of Vigils. I pray other offices when I can, but I don’t beat myself up over it. Far from me retreating into an office or prayer closet, I find myself sitting at the dining room table while my children play in the living room. Singing of hymns are often mixed with the tunes I hear on Super Why or Max and Ruby.

Today is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The readings were wonderful, the psalms were uplifting, and right as I was getting wrapped up in the beauty of the Te Deum, I hear the words, “Daddy, I pee-peed.” Yes, right there in the middle of the white robed-martyrs, the angels and saints all praising God, life carried on and my preschooler needed to be changed. Without hesitation I left the breviary at the table, scooped up my embarrassed daughter (who is trying so hard to learn to use the potty), and went about clean up duty. Making sure that my little girl was dry, happy and in possession of her favorite blanket, I returned to the table for the last four of five minutes of prayer time with a whole new perspective: what must it have been like for Ss. Anna and Joachim to potty train the Blessed Virgin? What must it have been like for Blessed Mary and Joseph to change the diaper of the one sent to be messiah? All of a sudden it all felt so real, so close, so familiar.

I think people get discouraged when they seek to have these grand spiritual experiences and they do not come. Having taught centering prayer for a number of years, I find it odd how many people are ready to give up after a few days or weeks of practice because, “this doesn’t work.” They aren’t seeing visions that the great spiritual masters saw, so something must be wrong. The truth is, very few of us will see anything of the sort. This is a good thing, because if we did see visions and have raptures, we would spend all our time chasing them. The real fruits of prayer are found in the mundane, in the every day, in the oh-so-ordinary. It is found in doing the breakfast dishes, in mowing the lawn, in paying bills, in changing a baby. I think a real world spirituality doesn’t seek to divide the sacred from the profane, the ordinary from the divine; it sees it as all being part of one continuous world where God’s Spirit is active and present.